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Full Throttle
Full Throttle is a point-and-click adventure game for the PC and Mac platforms, developed and published by LucasArts. It was designed by Tim Schafer, and was the first project on which he was the main project leader. The game features voice actors Roy Conrad and Mark Hamill. It was released on April 30, 1995. It is the tenth game to use the SCUMM adventure game engine. Gameplay upon their first encounter.]] Players view Ben, the protagonist, in third-person. Using the mouse, players click the left button to move him and hold it over certain objects to view their interactive options; a graphic menu rendered as a flaming skull displays a fist ("use", "grab" or "hit"), eyes ("examine"), tongue ("speak" or "taste") and boot ("kick"). After the menu appears, the player then selects one of these icons for the desired interaction. The inventory of collected tools or weapons is invoked by right-clicking anywhere on the screen. It also contains portions where the player is required to drive, combating enemy bikers with punches and kicks, and later chains, planks, and other crude weapons. Dialogue plays a large part in the game, during which story elements and information necessary to advance are presented. Several choices of dialogue are presented in certain situations, allowing players to choose the path of conversation and ultimately advance the scene by selecting the right choice of words (something common in several LucasArts adventure games of the era). The game, somewhat in contrast to other SCUMM engine games, may present situations where the player can die. During some sequences, it is possible to make a wrong choice of action, or react too slow, resulting in killing the main character. Such events are followed with Ben's voiceover ("Let me try that again" or "Damn"), after which the sequence starts over to allow the player to retry. There are no "lives" nor "game over" messages in Full Throttle and players may retry as often as necessary to advance. Plot The story is set in a dystopian future where motorized vehicles are giving way to anti-gravitational hovercrafts. A hardened biker named Ben is the leader of a motorcycle gang called the Polecats. As his gang rides down Highway 9, they come across an expensive white hovercraft limousine. Ben, in the lead, unceremoniously drives over the limousine, crushing the hood ornament. Unknown to the gang, the limo belongs to Malcolm Corley, the CEO and founder of the last domestic motorcycle manufacturer in the country, Corley Motors. Intrigued and impressed, Corley demands his driver catch up to the gang. As Ben and his gang relax at the Kick Stand Bar, Corley approaches. Malcolm befriends Ben with stories of his past adventures as a biker. Before long, Corley's sinister vice president Adrian Ripburger enters the bar and asks to speak to Ben privately, outside. He asks Ben to have the Polecats appear at the upcoming annual Corley Motors shareholder's meeting as an "escort". When Ben declines, he is knocked out and thrown in a dumpster by Nestor and Bolus, malicious henchmen of Adrian Ripburger. Ben later awakes and attempts to link up with the Polecats, whom Ripburger has coerced into escorting Corley to the shareholder's meeting. However, Ben finds that his bike had been sabotaged when he attempts to catch up. After crashing and falling unconscious, he is discovered by a reporter named Miranda Rose Wood, who manages to bring him to "just the right person". When he awakens, he meets a female mechanic named Maureen (or Mo for short), who patches up his bike with a few parts she asks Ben to retrieve. Ben finds his gang waiting for Corley while he's in the restroom at a road stop. Meanwhile, Miranda witnesses Ripburger murder Corley outside of the restroom, and manages to take pictures. Bolus snatches the camera while Miranda escapes. After they leave, Ben discovers Corley, and with his dying words, he tells Ben that Ripburger did this to take over the company and he intends to produce mini-vans instead of motorcycles. Ben must set things straight by finding Corley's daughter, who is revealed to be Maureen. With his gang now jailed in connection to Corley's murder, Ben crosses the desert as a framed fugitive to find a way to clear his name, save his gang, and prevent Ripburger from turning Corley Motors into a minivan producer. He crosses paths with other motorcycle gangs: the speed-addicted Vultures (of which Mo is later revealed to be a member), the brutal Rottwheelers, and the enigmatic Cavefish. Several diversions also come Ben's way: he must acquire items to cross a gorge when its bridge destroyed, convince Maureen he didn't kill Corley via Miranda's recovered film, and fight through Ripburger's henchmen to stop Ripburger from taking over the company and getting away with murder. Ben and Maureen eventually expose Ripburger as Corley's murderer with the pictures Miranda took, and broadcast the last will and testament of Malcolm Corley, who names Mo the rightful successor to his company. Exposed, Ripburger flees the scene. As Ben and Maureen ride away, Ripburger makes one final attempt to ram them off the road in his semi-truck. Maureen's gang, The Vultures, arrive in time in a land-driven cargo plane to immobilize Ripburger's truck. The vehicle comes to a screeching halt over a bridge demolished earlier in the game, and after a final conflict, Ripburger is dropped into the gorge below. Corley's funeral follows, and with the Polecats freed and Maureen in her rightful place, Ben rides into the sunset on his bike. Characters * Ben (voiced by Roy Conrad) is the protagonist of the game and a biker gang leader, though the other Polecats spend most of the game in prison with Ben trying to get them out of it. Ben's entire name appears only in the manual as "Ben Whatsisname". Tim Schafer stated that Ben's last name is "Throttle" but it wasn't included in the game because of fears of a legal action by the producers of Biker Mice from Mars, which featured a character by the name of Throttle. *'Maureen "Mo" Corley' (voiced by Kath Soucie) is Malcolm Corley's illegitimate daughter and, secretly, a member of the Vultures. She has a stoic and skeptical personality, and works as a mechanic. At the end of the game, she inherits her father's company and abandons her biker lifestyle. However, as shown in the trailer, she was supposed to return as a biker in the sequel. *'Malcolm Corley' (voiced by Hamilton Camp) is the owner of Corley Motors, the last domestic motorcycle manufacturer, and a patriarch of the biker society respected equally by all gangs. *'Adrian Ripburger' (voiced by Mark Hamill) is the Vice-President of Corley Motors and the main antagonist of the game. *'Bolus' (voiced by Jack Angel) is Malcolm Corley's bodyguard, secretly in league with Adrian Ripburger. *'Nestor' (voiced by Maurice LaMarche) is Malcolm Corley's driver, also in league with Ripburger, who describes him as the "smart one" of the two henchmen. *'Quohog' (voiced by Mal Friedman) is the bartender at the Kick Stand Bar. He bears no ill will towards Ben, but ends up causing him some minor problems after being paid off. Development Full Throttle was released only on CD-ROM, featuring a full voiceover soundtrack. The project was led by Tim Schafer, who was also its writer and designer. Full Throttle employed several skilled voice acting professionals, such as Roy Conrad, Kath Soucie, Maurice LaMarche, Tress MacNeille, Hamilton Camp, Steven Jay Blum and Mark Hamill. Full Throttle was the first computer game to employ mostly Screen Actors Guild-registered professional voice actors instead of relying entirely on in-house talent. According to Tim Schafer, Full Throttle originally would have featured a sequence where Ben undergoes a peyote-induced hallucinogenic psychadelic experience. This was eventually ejected from the game, because the developers couldn't get it to "work out" with the publishing. The concept eventually became the basis of Psychonauts. Being a title from LucasArts, a few Star Wars references were worked into the game. Truck driver Emmet is seen with an Imperial logo tattoo on his right forearm in one scene, and a rival driver during the demolition derby sequence was illustrated to look like George Lucas. One of the opposing Rottwheeler bikers on the Mine Road has a Rebel logo tattooed on his forehead. Also, in a scene where Ben is talking to the reporter, Miranda, she says "Help me Ben, You're my only hope!", a paraphrase of a classic Star Wars line. Music It was also one of the few LucasArts games to use externally recorded music, courtesy of The Gone Jackals. Certain tracks from their album, Bone to Pick, were featured in the game. Reception The game received, according to MetaCritic, generally favorable reviews, and has over the time become a cult classic of adventure games. Weak points of the game included its linearity and short duration — elements that brought the game in comparison to Loom. Full Throttle retains a stable fanbase that keeps developing the setting and the story on their own, for example, through modules for a popular role-playing game system Fudge. 65daysofstatic used an audio clip from the game for their song "Asphalt and Trouble", whose title is derived from said audio. Packaging artwork Image:Full_Throttle_artwork.jpg References External links *Wikipedia article * * * [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/g/pc_games/full_throttle/ Full Throttle] at Rotten Tomatoes * [http://www.rottentomatoes.com/g/xbox/full_throttle_hell_on_wheels/ Full Throttle: Hell on Wheels] at Rotten Tomatoes Category:Games Category:Full Throttle